Jarrett Adams On Being Wrongfully Convicted To Becoming A Criminal Defense Attorney — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00morning show.
2. 0:02>> The time right now is 26 minutes after
3. 0:04the hour, y'all. Today, we are joined by
4. 0:06a renowned criminal defense attorney,
5. 0:09advocate, and public speaker who has a
6. 0:11new book out called Redeeming Justice.
7. 0:13Y'all please welcome attorney Jarod
8. 0:15Adams.
9. 0:20Hey, man. Thank you for getting up so
10. 0:21early. Thank you for joining us.
11. 0:23>> Oh, well, look. Thank you for having me,
12. 0:25man. I was even going to be on the day
13. 0:26of listening to y'all today. One or the
14. 0:28other.
15. 0:28>> That's what's up.
16. 0:29>> Yeah, man. Man, God bless you. And man,
17. 0:32let's jump right into it because you was
18. 0:34wrongfully convicted and spent 10 years
19. 0:36in prison for a crime you did not commit
20. 0:38at 17 years old, and you was finally
21. 0:41exonerated. But during those 10 years,
22. 0:44how did you continue to hold hope and
23. 0:47you know that would that you would
24. 0:48finally be free?
25. 0:49>> Yeah, well, thank you again for letting
26. 0:52me share my story. But look, I got to
27. 0:54tip my cap and give a huge shout-out to
28. 0:55black women, man, cuz my mother and my
29. 0:57auntie
30. 0:59continued to breathe life in me, man, in
31. 1:00a dark situation. So, I'm sitting up
32. 1:02here locked up. I'm a kid in a maximum
33. 1:04super maximum security prison.
34. 1:07I'm getting letters from my friends who
35. 1:09had all been going off to the HBCUs and
36. 1:12colleges, and I'm there and I'm fighting
37. 1:14for my life. So, one of my aunts who
38. 1:16passed away,
39. 1:17we called her Sugar. So, I'm from the
40. 1:19south side of Chicago. So, if y'all hear
41. 1:21these names and terms we be calling our
42. 1:23aunties, it's it's a shy thing. And then
43. 1:25I'm sure other folks and families, too.
44. 1:27Yeah. So, so my aunt Sugar was a was a
45. 1:30She was an amazing woman. And one of the
46. 1:31things that she would do is she would
47. 1:33send me the newspaper. The newspaper
48. 1:35would get there late. It would be
49. 1:36expensive. And I told her, like, I'm
50. 1:37like, "Look, just stop sending it. I'll
51. 1:38find something else to read." So, she
52. 1:40says, "No, I'm doing this for a reason.
53. 1:42We going We going to acknowledge that
54. 1:43they got your body confined, but we
55. 1:45never going to let them incarcerate your
56. 1:46mind, your dreams, your hope. You're
57. 1:47going to stay up with the world until
58. 1:49you get back in the world."
59. 1:52>> Wow. That's awesome. You know them
60. 1:54Chicago women, they ain't no joke.
61. 1:55Especially them aunties and them them
62. 1:57older ones. Man, man, we really
63. 1:59appreciate them. My mama, my
64. 2:01grandmothers, everybody. We all from
65. 2:03Chicago. And I know this man felt like
66. 2:05rock bottom, but looking back on your
67. 2:06trial now as a lawyer, is there anything
68. 2:09you would have done different to protect
69. 2:11yourself? Cuz I know things are
70. 2:12different today cuz when I got locked
71. 2:14up, my trial was crazy and there's a lot
72. 2:16of things that I would have changed that
73. 2:18went down that I know now that I didn't
74. 2:19know before.
75. 2:20>> Let me let me I say this often time. I
76. 2:22was speaking to
77. 2:23I was speaking at the juvenile facility
78. 2:25the other day and I was telling them
79. 2:26that I could remember vividly, you know,
80. 2:28I could repeat every lyric to to the
81. 2:30Tupac double CD in 1998, but didn't know
82. 2:34not one constitutional right to shut up
83. 2:36when you up in there, right? And so I
84. 2:38give this advice to everybody listening.
85. 2:40I give this advice to little Daryl, too,
86. 2:41man. Don't go in there in them police
87. 2:43stations talking, you know what I mean?
88. 2:45Just just ask for an attorney. Don't
89. 2:47believe that you're going to be able to
90. 2:48outsmart anyone. And I think also in our
91. 2:50community, I think that as I was raised
92. 2:52and Brett, maybe you can relate to this
93. 2:53as well. So when you raised um black
94. 2:56families, um specifically South Side of
95. 2:58Chicago, they raise you to respect
96. 3:00authorities, respect this and respect
97. 3:02that. A lot of times when we have
98. 3:03interactions, our kids have interactions
99. 3:05with authorities, they're going they're
100. 3:07operating off autopilot to to respect
101. 3:10authorities, to do this and do that.
102. 3:12That gets us in trouble. We need to
103. 3:13teach our kids the law. And the law is
104. 3:16we should ask for an attorney and be
105. 3:17represented by an adult or an attorney,
106. 3:20and that's how we protect ourselves the
107. 3:21most in our
108. 3:22>> Before you start talking.
109. 3:23>> Absolutely.
110. 3:23>> Absolutely.
111. 3:24>> That is amazing. Such a powerful story.
112. 3:27Let me ask you, what advice would you
113. 3:29give to families that are already
114. 3:30fighting to prove their loved one's
115. 3:33innocence?
116. 3:33>> Yeah. You know, I I get a lot of
117. 3:36requests and we can't represent
118. 3:37everyone, right? And so what I would ask
119. 3:40folks to do is
120. 3:42have family meetings, band together. One
121. 3:45of the things that that plagued me in my
122. 3:47situation was, and I understood my
123. 3:49mother for doing this was it was so
124. 3:51embarrassing to talk about what had
125. 3:53happened because no no one hears past
126. 3:56but they like Jerry locked up but,
127. 3:58right? But no one hears past that. So my
128. 4:01mother kept this inside and a lot of
129. 4:03that she couldn't get help as a result
130. 4:05of that. So one of the things that I'm
131. 4:06encouraging folks to do is open up,
132. 4:09you know, have family meetings
133. 4:11discussing it, everybody banding
134. 4:12together. It the best thing to do is to
135. 4:14be able to retain someone but not
136. 4:16everyone is able to afford to do that.
137. 4:18But I'm telling you if we get together,
138. 4:19man, don't care if it's fish fries or
139. 4:21car washes, whatever, the the lives of
140. 4:24our babies are important and right now
141. 4:25that is the biggest thing that we're
142. 4:26dealing with. We're losing
143. 4:29It used to be a lot of just boys. They
144. 4:31are locking up women increasingly more
145. 4:34and more in our society today.
146. 4:35>> Now Jerry, this stuff happens in our
147. 4:38community a lot. I actually have a
148. 4:39friend who did 32 years
149. 4:41>> Yeah.
150. 4:41>> unlawfully.
151. 4:43Now I want to ask you uh was there ever
152. 4:46a formal apology from the state or did
153. 4:48you get compensated for the 10 years
154. 4:50that you did spend
155. 4:51>> Yeah.
156. 4:51>> un- un-
157. 4:53undeservedly?
158. 4:54>> So look, a lot of people ask me that
159. 4:55question and and I, you know,
160. 4:58I do civil rights mainly now moving away
161. 5:00from criminal defense. And civil rights
162. 5:03is the chapter where you're able to to
163. 5:05sue if you can to recover for damages.
164. 5:07But a lot of people believe that just
165. 5:09because someone is wrongfully convicted,
166. 5:11they are immediately entitled to
167. 5:13compensation. They are not. Over 90% of
168. 5:15the people who get their convictions
169. 5:17reversed, they never have a remedy to
170. 5:19recover because of things like qualified
171. 5:21immunity. A lot of times cases like, you
172. 5:23know, Breonna Taylor will bring up the
173. 5:25topic qualified immunity but I'm just
174. 5:26going to tell y'all in layman's terms
175. 5:28what that mean.
176. 5:29If something happens to you
177. 5:31with your interaction with the authority
178. 5:34every loophole imaginable will be
179. 5:36explored before you are compensated.
180. 5:39Period. It's a loophole. So what what
181. 5:42I'm saying is that I've never gotten a
182. 5:44dime. I've never been compensated at
183. 5:46all.
184. 5:47I remember when the conviction was
185. 5:49reversed and going into the courtroom
186. 5:52with a judge, the same judge who
187. 5:53sentenced me,
188. 5:55had to order the dismissal of the
189. 5:57charges and everything. And this is the
190. 6:00same courtroom where I'm being paraded
191. 6:02around as a rapist and all that type of
192. 6:04stuff in front of my mother and my aunt
193. 6:05who raised me. And in a matter of 3
194. 6:07minutes,
195. 6:08the prosecutor was like, "Yeah, we're
196. 6:10going to dismiss the charges." The judge
197. 6:11slammed the gavel, turned around,
198. 6:13everybody disappeared, and it wasn't
199. 6:15nobody but me and my mother in that
200. 6:16room. And when I turned around and I
201. 6:19seen them them wrinkles and creases of
202. 6:21language on her forehead,
203. 6:23it pissed me off to come and do what I'm
204. 6:24doing right now.
205. 6:26>> Why why do wrongful convictions happen
206. 6:29more often than people think?
207. 6:31Why?
208. 6:31>> I think I think number one,
209. 6:34there is low-hanging fruit in our
210. 6:35criminal justice system that needs to be
211. 6:37addressed and it will help. We need to
212. 6:38start doing preventative measures when
213. 6:40it comes to this. I think that we need
214. 6:42to start number one, black folks, people
215. 6:45of color period in general, people of
216. 6:47like mind in general, man, go to jury
217. 6:48duty. Okay, y'all?
218. 6:51Because we need y'all to be on that jury
219. 6:52pool because y'all understand, you know,
220. 6:54why we wouldn't
221. 6:56say this or say that in a certain way,
222. 6:58why why things that can be construed as
223. 7:00our language will be damning to other
224. 7:02folks who don't come from where we come
225. 7:04from. We need black and brown folks to
226. 7:06show up for jury duty. That's number
227. 7:07one. Number two, we have to find a way
228. 7:10to tilt the scales evenly for our public
229. 7:13defense systems. 90%
230. 7:16of the the society today, they are
231. 7:18defended by the public defense system
232. 7:20because they can't afford an attorney.
233. 7:22So, if you have public defenders and
234. 7:24public defense systems that are managing
235. 7:2650 to 75 cases at one time, it's going
236. 7:29to be many people who slip through the
237. 7:31crack.
238. 7:31>> Right.
239. 7:32>> Alfred, before you ask your question,
240. 7:33let me Now, attorney, I have a question.
241. 7:35I'm just help me cuz I'm I don't know
242. 7:37how this goes. So, now you were
243. 7:38wrongfully convicted of a crime. Now, I
244. 7:41always Now, was it a felony?
245. 7:43>> No, it Well, yeah, all of Yes, it was a
246. 7:45felony.
247. 7:45>> Cuz I always thought that if you had a
248. 7:46felony, they say, "Hell, you couldn't do
249. 7:47nothing." So, now you became an attorney
250. 7:49after going through all that. So, how
251. 7:51does that work?
252. 7:52>> It It works because I don't have a
253. 7:54record because my record my my
254. 7:56conviction was reversed. All the charges
255. 7:58were dismissed. Well, let me say
256. 7:59something to you. That's a great
257. 8:00question. Although I don't have a
258. 8:02record, the charges was dismissed, the
259. 8:05tentacles of that wrongful conviction
260. 8:06will forever reach me through life.
261. 8:08>> Really?
262. 8:08>> Yeah.
263. 8:09>> Yeah.
264. 8:09>> Forever. Look, let me let me give you an
265. 8:10example. When I was coming in here, I
266. 8:11was speaking with my team and I was just
267. 8:13talking about, man, how for me in the
268. 8:15early '90s, we would come down to
269. 8:17Atlanta and do like family reunions and
270. 8:19stuff like that. It was nostalgia,
271. 8:21right? You know what I mean? Like, you
272. 8:23coming down to the HBCU capital of the
273. 8:25world and I was looking forward to to
274. 8:27partaking in that, right? Didn't get the
275. 8:30opportunity to do that. So, now, you
276. 8:32know, I'm I'm meeting folks and and and
277. 8:33and I'm asking folks about how they know
278. 8:35this person, that person. Well, they
279. 8:36know them from going to school together.
280. 8:38I missed out on that chapter. I'm locked
281. 8:39up from 17. I didn't get out until I was
282. 8:4226 turning 27 years old.
283. 8:44>> Yes, and and you you pretty much playing
284. 8:47catch-up. Hey, listen,
285. 8:49hold that hold that we're going to
286. 8:51bring you back on the other side, y'all.
287. 8:53We're going to be talking more with
288. 8:54attorney Jarrett Adams up next, Rickey
289. 8:56Smiley Morning Show. Now, he's a defense
290. 8:58attorney telling the telling his
291. 9:00incredible story in his new book
292. 9:02Redeeming Justice and
293. 9:04let me just ask you, what does Redeeming
294. 9:06Justice really mean to you and why, you
295. 9:09know, why was now the right time to tell
296. 9:11your story?
297. 9:12>> Yeah. Well, Redeeming Justice for me
298. 9:16is my politically correct way of saying
299. 9:17I'm getting my lick back, you know what
300. 9:19I mean? And so, that's really what that
301. 9:21was about, man. I mean, look, I can't
302. 9:23tell you that that, you know, had I not
303. 9:25went to prison
304. 9:27that I wouldn't be an attorney, but I
305. 9:28can definitely tell you had I not, you
306. 9:30know, went to prison, I still would have
307. 9:32been something, right? And so,
308. 9:34I think that that now more than ever, I
309. 9:37think that there's a lot of distractions
310. 9:38that are that are keeping us from the
311. 9:40the main problem we've had since its
312. 9:43inception. And that is a criminal legal
313. 9:45system. And I think that me writing this
314. 9:47book on the cover of it, there's a
315. 9:49picture of my my booking photo as I'm
316. 9:5117, and then there's another picture
317. 9:54like 12, 13 years later and I'm an
318. 9:56attorney. I think I would argue this.
319. 9:59I think that it is it is easier, if you
320. 10:01can fathom this, to go through what I
321. 10:03went through,
322. 10:04go out, get a law degree, become a
323. 10:06lawyer, than it is to be a number one
324. 10:08pick in any any sports.
325. 10:10>> Wow.
326. 10:10>> So, I
327. 10:11I argue that
328. 10:13we have a backup plan.
329. 10:15And I think that that our education is
330. 10:16key. There was a reason why, you know,
331. 10:19in the days of of of of Jim Crow
332. 10:21slavery, they were trying to trying to
333. 10:23keep us from reading and access to
334. 10:24education because it is it is one of the
335. 10:27many keys that can open doors and and
336. 10:30and pave a way for for our generations
337. 10:32to come.
338. 10:34>> Now, you helped free Terrance Richardson
339. 10:36and Ferrone Clayborn who were convicted
340. 10:38of killing a white officer back in 1988.
341. 10:41It was known as the Waverly burning, and
342. 10:43you helped get them pardoned by
343. 10:44President Biden and later on exonerated.
344. 10:47How'd you do all of that?
345. 10:49>> So, this was a 10-year journey and and
346. 10:51right now, there was a President Biden
347. 10:54commuted their sentence, but right now
348. 10:55their case is still in front of the
349. 10:57Virginia Supreme Court to grant their
350. 10:59actual innocence.
351. 11:00>> Mhm.
352. 11:00>> Um and it's a case that I asked many
353. 11:02people to look up. If you just Google uh
354. 11:05Waverly burning, you'll see that the the
355. 11:07YouTube videos. I'm trying to make this
356. 11:08story go from the small town in Waverly
357. 11:11to a national story to help these
358. 11:12brothers vindicate themselves and clear
359. 11:14their name. Um it was my organization
360. 11:17that I created Life After Justice, is a
361. 11:19nonprofit organization where we have a
362. 11:21legal department and and where we use
363. 11:23resources that are donated to represent
364. 11:25people who are claiming actual
365. 11:27innocence, but they just can't afford to
366. 11:29get representation. So, Terrance and
367. 11:31Ferrone are two men that I met years ago
368. 11:33and I met them through their mother,
369. 11:35man. And what I was just telling y'all
370. 11:36about them wrinkles and creases of
371. 11:37anguish. So, I'm doing a speaking event
372. 11:40in Virginia and a lady, you know, was
373. 11:43was standing in the line of folk coming
374. 11:44up to shake my hands and I spotted her
375. 11:46out the crowd because I she had a manila
376. 11:49envelope in her hand and she just looked
377. 11:51worried.
378. 11:52>> Her eyes.
379. 11:52>> Just just looked worried. Just reminded
380. 11:54me of my mother with the with the
381. 11:55wrinkles over her forehead. She handed
382. 11:58me the envelope and the envelope
383. 11:59contained a letter from Terrance and
384. 12:01Ferron asking for some help and saying
385. 12:03that they were innocent. So, took the
386. 12:05case,
387. 12:06litigated over the years.
388. 12:08Um we were able to get them out. They're
389. 12:10now out. But now the focus right now is
390. 12:13we got to help provide them with the
391. 12:15reintegration tools that they need and
392. 12:17mental health care and therapy is one.
393. 12:19Um there was a segment that just came
394. 12:21out on these guys. Like I said, if you
395. 12:22go look it up, you'll see
396. 12:24um a Richmond reporter did a segment on
397. 12:25it. And one of the things that Terrance
398. 12:27was saying was that
399. 12:29um every day he had to get up and look
400. 12:30in the mirror as a free man with the
401. 12:32gray hairs that he didn't have when he
402. 12:34went in there.
403. 12:35>> Wow.
404. 12:36>> Oh my gosh, this this conversation is so
405. 12:38necessary. I I'm going home and having
406. 12:40another conversation with my boys today.
407. 12:43Thank you so much for being on the show,
408. 12:44but let me ask you. You went from inmate
409. 12:47to attorney. When did you realize the
410. 12:49law was going to become like your weapon
411. 12:52for justice?
412. 12:54>> So, I'm I'm sitting in in a super
413. 12:57maximum security prison and I'm, you
414. 12:59know, what a a tutor, you know, to pass
415. 13:02time. I'm a HSE D, you know, GED tutor.
416. 13:05And I'm starting out to to help folks as
417. 13:08I'm sitting in this library and the
418. 13:10thing what I realized was this I'm I'm
419. 13:11going to tell you a cold reality, man.
420. 13:14I I was helping this guy with his
421. 13:15re-sentencing. It was a guy who just got
422. 13:18out. He was back in there for drugs. And
423. 13:20I'm reading and I'm like, man, why you
424. 13:22what you what you keep on selling drugs
425. 13:23for? Man looked at me and was was fool,
426. 13:25you think I want to be selling drugs out
427. 13:27here? I ain't got no other way." So, he
428. 13:29started to tell me his his his family
429. 13:31history and story, and then I realized
430. 13:34how much of a cycle that that it is, and
431. 13:37how sometimes we just don't pay
432. 13:38attention to it because we're actually
433. 13:40living in it. And until it happened to
434. 13:42us, we don't really know how to how to
435. 13:43respond to it. So, I think that that was
436. 13:46one of the ways that that I believe that
437. 13:48my calling was was starting to to be
438. 13:52um
439. 13:53to to start to grow. I mean, I really
440. 13:55felt like I was I was helping I could
441. 13:57help. I felt like that, you know, I was
442. 13:59able to articulate but with the same
443. 14:01passion and the same energy as as the
444. 14:02boy on the South Side of Chicago sitting
445. 14:04on the stoop eating an icy cup, you
446. 14:06know?
447. 14:06>> Right. Hey, let uh let man, we really
448. 14:10appreciate you coming on. Uh let
449. 14:12everybody know how they could follow you
450. 14:13on social media so when you do your
451. 14:15live, you know, people could really uh
452. 14:18you know, uh get into some of the things
453. 14:21that you have accomplished and things
454. 14:22that you're talking about without having
455. 14:24to go to commercial could follow you.
456. 14:29>> Follow Jared Adams Law on on literally
457. 14:32all social media handles. And And some
458. 14:34of the videos that I've been putting
459. 14:35out, um you guys should check them out.
460. 14:38It talks about how to expunge a record.
461. 14:40It talks about how to obtain a pro bono
462. 14:42attorney because it's hard, man. Look,
463. 14:44attorneys got to eat as well, too. So,
464. 14:45not everybody going to be able to take
465. 14:46your case pro bono. But let me tell you
466. 14:48how they will take your case. If you
467. 14:50come prepared
468. 14:51with all of the your stuff, you make it
469. 14:54easier for folks to review it, more than
470. 14:56likely they'll take the time to look at
471. 14:57it.
472. 14:58>> All right, y'all. Thank you so much for
473. 14:59joining us this morning and sharing your
474. 15:00story. Everybody, please give it up for
475. 15:01Jared Adams. More of the Morning Show
476. 15:04coming up.